The present invention relates to a personal digital assistant and an information transmission apparatus for use with the personal digital assistant and more particularly to a personal digital assistant and an information transmission apparatus for use with the personal digital assistant capable of displaying data, for example, in texts or spreadsheets.
Since the personal digital assistant (which can be hereinafter simply referred to as xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d) is so small that it can be accommodated in a pocket and can operate for a considerably long period of time with a battery source, it has excellent convenience not found in a desktop personal computer, for example, in that even a user who is out can use it whereas it has a drawback that its small size limits the size of a keyboard and that the data inputting efficiency is low inevitably. In this respect, some of PDAs have a transparent touch panel attached to a display screen such that one of icons appearing on the screen is touched with a pen tip or the like to facilitate an inputting operation. However, it is apparent that the pen-touch input efficiency is greatly low compared to that of a general blind touch operation at the keyboard.
In addition, since the PDAs usually have a small display size, a small data storage capacity and a low processing speed compared to desktop personal computers, they are not suitable for processing a large amount of data at high speeds such as data collection through the internet.
Now, the roles of the desktop personal computers and the PDAs have been settling such that the desktop personal computers take charge of collecting a large amount of data from the outside via the internet or the like and inputting data from a general keyboard while the PDAs take charge of fetching and utilizing required data from the collected or inputted large amount of data as requested.
FIG. 22 illustrates a desktop personal computer (hereinafter simply referred to as xe2x80x9cpersonal computerxe2x80x9d) connected to a PDA, in which connectors 3 and 4 provided to both of the PDA and the personal computer 2 are connected by a dedicated communication cable 5.
The connectors 3 and 4 and the cable 5 have structures and electrical specifications conforming to predetermined interface standards. RS (recommended standard)-232C established by EIA (Electronic Industry Association in United States) is typical of such standards.
For instance, when browser data collected by the personal computer 2 from the outside through the internet browser or a word processor file created by the personal computer 2 is transferred to the PDA 1, a user first connects the cable 5 between the personal computer 2 and the PDA 1, as shown in FIG. 22, and then turns on a power source for the PDA 1 to prepare for information reception. The user starts up a communication program in the personal computer 2 to transmit the browser data or the word processor file to the PDA 1.
Further, it is sometimes desired to transmit only a portion of a file collected by or inputted in the personal computer to the PDA. Especially, recently, such a demand has increased since a large amount of information is available easily via personal computer communication or the internet. To this end, as in the above case, a user performs an applied operation which includes connecting the cable as shown in FIG. 22, turning on the power source for the PDA 1 to prepare for information reception, starting up a browser program or a word processing program in the personal computer to open a desired data file, selecting the range of a part of a character string to be transmitted on a screen of the personal computer 2, copying it to a predetermined work area (clipboard) in a memory, then starting up an editor program for text data, pasting the data on the clipboard, saving the data under any particular file name, starting up a communication program and then transmitting the text file to the PDA 1.
However, the applied operation requires an extremely complicated operation which includes copying a desired range of the displayed data, preparing for and starting up another editor program to save the range as a separate file. It is very difficult especially for a beginner who does not have enough knowledge about the clipboard and the editor program to understand and utilize the applied operation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to make it possible to transmit only a desired portion of data in an information transmission apparatus (personal computer or the like) in a simple operation to a personal digital assistant, or to store the thus transmitted data into the personal digital assistant in a simple operation such that a required portion of the data obtained by the information transmission apparatus (personal computer or the like) can be utilized easily in the personal digital assistant.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an information transmission apparatus which contains various kinds of programs each having a function of displaying data, comprising:
connecting means for connecting the information transmission apparatus with a personal digital assistant in a wired, wireless or optical manner for transmission of information,
specifying means for specifying the range of any part of data displayed based on an active one of the programs and to be sent to the personal digital assistant,
transmission commanding means for commanding transmission of the specified range of any part of data to the personal digital assistant; and
transmission control means, responsive to the transmission commanding means commanding transmission of the specified range of any part of data, for creating a new file including the specified range of any part of data and for transmitting the file via the connecting means to the personal digital assistant.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is also provided an information transmission apparatus comprising:
event generating means, responsive to a use""s predetermined manipulation, for generating a predetermined event,
storing means, responsive to the generation of the predetermined event, for storing data on a clipboard,
producing means for producing a new file from the data on the clipboard stored by the storing means; and
transmitting means for transmitting the produced file to a personal digital assistant via a communication port in a wired, wireless or optical manner.
According to the present invention, when a desired range of a part of a large amount of data is specified which is obtained and displayed by one of various kinds of programs on the information transmission apparatus (personal computer or the like), the data is transmitted as a new file to the personal digital assistant. The personal digital assistant can receive the transmitted file, store it in a predetermined data area, and display and use its contents.